I've searched the forum with no luck, but this might still be out there. It's probably simple to code. This feature is found in Trillian

I dont want a popup to load up for every single contact I have, so I only have a couple of friends popping up. For my not so close buddies I have a sound play to let me know when they come online.

What I want to do is have the contact that logs on renamed, prefixed with a color code, for say 10-15 seconds.

+bling+ I look at the contact list and know who just logged on, because his otherwise black fonts have now turned orange, and bold. ..You could just have a simple edit box that lets me specify my own prefix, so it would be more versatile, letting you have it say "(Just signed in) Snorri Páll" or "Snorri Páll"
Just be careful letting the plugin revert to the original name correctly, in case the user has already had the user renamed.

Another feature rather simular, but probably way harder to implement, would be to have the same thing happen when the contact signs out.

+blong+ the contact that just signed out changes collor to light gray, (and perhaps the small display icon turns black and white), and lingers on my list for 10 seconds before dropping out. I know I'm probably asking way to much with this second feature, but please, if you could give at least one of them a try ?

There is no way for a plugin to get the Custom Name, let alone change it. This is because Plus! encrypts the email, and only Plus! can verify it.

Unless Patchou develops some function for Plugin coders (to get/set some contact's options)...

aww There must be some way to do it ?
Perhaps this post could be moved to a feature request for Plus 4.0 ? This would be an adorable new feature, I'd say.
Perhaps Plus can implement a way to communicate contact information to plugins with variables somehow ? I don't have a too deep an understanding of how you do things but if the plugin comunicates to plus to set the nick to "[ColorOrange]%displayednick%" plus could change the contact name however the user is displaying it (be it renamed, email or normal) without giving the info to the plugin (which I'm guessing is hidden so the plugins can't collect email and molest my contacts).